Page:Georges Eekhoud - Escal Vigor, a novel.djvu/248

224 The former valet did not dare yet to act openly, but he would yet let loose a terrible storm on Kehlmark, his concubine, and their favourite. Their pride, their audacity, astonished him; indeed had they "cheek and brass!" How could they reconcile such morals with dignity! Nothing more was wanting but that they should seek to derive glory from their disgrace!

The scamp was a better prophet than he knew. He thought he had the right to hold his old master in deep contempt. The thousand acts of blackguardism, to which he, a thoroughgoing rascally trooper, an absolute prostitute, had abandoned himself during his time served in a military prison, seemed to him mere trifles and of no consequence whatsoever. In all times vice has condemned true love, and the Kehlmarks have been the rehabilitation of the Landrillons. The crowd will always prefer Barabbas to Jesus.

As a beginning, Landrillon was going to apply himself to detaching Michael Govaertz from the lord of Escal-Vigor; to cool the fine enthusiasm of the father and daughter, to warm the rancour of the virago against Blandine, and then to incriminate vaguely the